International and Area Studies Commons^™

Searching For Ourselves: African Cultural Representation In Children’S Books In The United States, And Implications For Educational Achievement, Lulama Moyo

Sustainability and Social Justice

Using documentary and discourse analysis of children’s literature I explore the extent to which there is a multicultural gap in children’s literature to reveal the prevailing challenges of the colonized and Eurocentric values embedded in the contemporary education system that supports the monocultural socialization of young children in their early formative years. I translate my research through examining four thematic ways on how the multicultural gap is manifested which are subject matter, the lack of African writers, degree of complexity of diasporic experiences, and confronting whiteness. By focusing more specifically on the gap in African diasporic children literature, I review …

Rice Value Chain Development And Policy Sequencing In Southern Africa, Sandratra M. Razafinjoelina

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of the 2008 food crisis, net food importing countries questioned the reliance on the volatile world market to meet their food demand. Consequently, the necessity to be selfsufficient returned to the forefront of national priorities. In Africa, the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) initiative was initiated and aimed to double rice production in the continent by 2018, with the eventual goal of achieving self-sufficiency in rice production. To attain this goal, each of the 23 CARD member countries drafted a comprehensive value chain upgrading strategy called the National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS). This study intends to …

Passing The Baton: Getting The 4g Leadership Ready, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan discussed the latest Cabinet changes and what it means for the fourth-generation (4G) leadership. He noted that given the demands and vagaries of politics and public office, it is advantageous for the 4G leadership to be adequately staffed, and to possess sufficient depth and breadth in their ranks. As it stands, the 4G leadership has a predominantly public sector or military background prior to entering politics. He also added that next year’s reshuffle is likely to see most, if not all, of the 4G leadership being reassigned ministerial portfolios, to …

Interdisciplinary Team Based Pastoral Care: A Potentially Adaptable Model For Estonian Healthcare, Liidia Meel, Tõnu Lehtsaar

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article aims to build a potentially adaptable model of clinical pastoral care for Estonia’s healthcare institutions. To help the development of spiritual support provision in Estonian healthcare institutions, we are currently working on creating a model of clinical pastoral care that would be in accordance with the local circumstances. Preparatory research in the matter has addressed the socio-cultural and institutional context that shows the great need for interdisciplinary teamwork. The current article offers concrete proposals in the following main points: a) presentation of the pastoral caregiver; b) main actors; c) forms of cooperation; and c) education and internal trainings. …

Managing The Inter-Cultural Dimensions Of A Mediation Effectively: A Proposed Pre-Mediation Intake Instrument, Dorcas Quek Anderson, Diana Knight

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Being a culturally responsive mediator has become increasingly challenging amidst the growing cultural complexity within many societies. Drawing on the existing research on culture and the authors’ experiences of mediating disputes amongst diverse disputants in Australia and Singapore, this paper proposes an emic-constructivist approach for the mediator to understand the individual disputant’s unique cultural preferences. It also recommends bringing forward the exercise of understanding cultural preferences through conducting pre-mediation intake interviews. It is argued that this approach enables the mediator to embrace the parties’ cultural complexity and to design the mediation process based on their rich milieu of preferences. Finally, …

The Asian Perspective On Smes In International Economic Law: Opportunities And Challenges Arising From The Tpp, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is likely to have profound implications for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within and beyond the free trade area. The key question will be analysed: what are the challenges and opportunities that the TPP hold for SMEs? It is argued that, first, the key benefits the TPP can be expected to bring for SMEs are enhanced market liberalization and a more predictable regulatory environment. Second, the TPP poses serious challenges for SMEs (eg insufficiency of the opportunities to SMEs, the complexity of rules, difficulties in rule interpretation and implementation, and remaining regulatory differences), but different types …

Navigating The New Terrain Of A Reserved Election, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan discussed the workings of the upcoming Singapore presidential election. He noted that as the next election is a reserved one, all the more voters should specially consider a candidate’s commitment and contributions to multiracialism. On the reserved election mechanism, Associate Prof Tan noted that it helps ensure that the presidency is not only accessible, but is seen to be accessible to all the major racial communities in Singapore.“It functions as an inter-generational safeguard for minority representation, while not going as far as mechanically rotating the presidency among the major races, …

A Tale Of Two Chinese Cultural Centres, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan shared his views on the opening of the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC), located in the financial district. He noted that the opening of the SCCC, established by the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations, marks another milestone in Singapore’s multiracialism, adding that Chinese Singaporeans can also manifest their identity and culture without being perceived to be exclusive or domineering.Comparing the SCCC to the Chinese Cultural Centre (CCC), established by China’s government during China’s President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Singapore in November 2015, Associate Prof Tan said although Singapore …

Singapore’S Life Program: Actuarial Framework, Longevity Risk And Impact Of Annuity Fund Return, Koon Shing Kwong, Yiu Kuen Tse, Wai-Sum Chan

Research Collection School Of Economics

The Central Provident Fund (CPF) is a defined-contribution savings plan forming the key pillar of the pension system in Singapore. The CPF Lifelong Income For the Elderly (LIFE) program, which provides lifetime income for retirees, is a mandatory pension scheme for all Singapore residents. In this paper we construct an actuarial framework to analyze the LIFE program. We use this framework to study the plan payout outcomes with respect to changes in mortality and annuity fund return assumptions. We also examine the effects of some possible changes in the program on the payouts and bequests.

Indigenous Resistance: Settler-Colonialism, Nation Building, And Colonial Patriarchy, Megan E. Vallowe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Indigenous Resistance: Settler-Colonialism, Nation Building, and Colonial Patriarchy,” interrogates the Western Hemisphere’s spatial construction by settler-states, Indigenous nations, and activists groups. In this project, I assert that Indigenous/Settler contact zones are significantly more convoluted than current scholarship’s use of contact zones in that the distinctions between Indigenous actors and settler-colonial ones are often blurred. These hybrid contact zones sometimes contain negative outcomes for all participants and often include undercurrents of insidious power dynamics within and across settler-states and Indigenous peoples alike. Using critical cartographic theory and deconstruction methods, this project first illustrates how empires ascribed a racialized patriarchy onto the …

The Net Of Nostalgia: Class, Culture, And Political Alienation And Nostalgia In Contemporary Latino And South Asian American Literature, Farzana Akhter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Generally thought of as a yearning for recent past, or homesickness, nostalgia is seen as a sentiment that impairs living in the present. And in case of immigrants, nostalgia is thought of as a debilitating form of escapism and an inability to adapt to change and mobility. In this dissertation, contesting against the prevalent concept, I argue that immigrant nostalgia is neither a colored memory (Dyson 117) nor a romance with one’s own fantasy (Boym xiii); rather, immigrant nostalgia has a socio-economic and political underpinning. By exploring the various nuances of immigrant experience delineated in the literary works of South …

Coronary Atherosclerosis In Indigenous South American Tsimane: A Cross-Sectional Cohort Study, Hillard Kaplan, Randall C. Thompson, Benjamin C. Trumble, L. Samuel Wann, Adel H. Allam, Bret Beheim, Bruno Frohlich, M. Linda Sutherland, James D. Sutherland, Jonathan Stieglitz, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, David E. Michalik, Chris J. Rowan, Guido P. Lombardi, Ram Bedi, Angela R. Garcia, James K. Min, Jagat Narula, Caleb E. Finch, Michael Gurven, Gregory S. Thomas

ESI Publications

Background—Conventional coronary artery disease risk factors might potentially explain at least 90% of the attributable risk of coronary artery disease. To better understand the association between the pre-industrial lifestyle and low prevalence of coronary artery disease risk factors, we examined the Tsimane, a Bolivian population living a subsistence lifestyle of hunting, gathering, fishing, and farming with few cardiovascular risk factors, but high infectious inflammatory burden.

Methods—We did a cross-sectional cohort study including all individuals who self-identified as Tsimane and who were aged 40 years or older. Coronary atherosclerosis was assessed by coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring done with …

Adrift At Sea: How The United States Government Is Forgoing The Fourth Amendment In The Prosecution Of Captured Terrorists, Frank Sullivan

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Air Traffic Control: How Mexican Cartels Are Utilizing Drones To Traffic Narcotics Into The United States, Britton Shields

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Legal Status Of Drones Under Loac And International Law, Vivek Sehrawat

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

The Innocent Combatant: Preserving Their Jus In Bello Protections, Mark "Max" Maxwell, Richard V. Meyer

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Maintaining Individual Liability In Aml And Cybersecurity At New York's Financial Institutions, Harry Dixon

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

A Research Agenda To Improve Decision Making In Cyber Security Policy, Benjamin Dean, Rose Mcdermott

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

The Cyber Longbow & Other Information Strategies: U.S. National Security And Cyberspace, Gary D. Brown

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

War In The 21st Century And Collected Works

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Women’S Work: Labor Market Outcomes And Female Entrepreneurship In Ghana, Loretta Agyemang

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper is an investigation of female entrepreneurship in Ghana. It seeks to answer the following question: Why are Ghanaian women so heavily concentrated in microenterprise in the informal economy? The literature review explores labor market trends for women on three different scales including an overview of developing countries, Sub-Saharan Africa regional, and Ghana-specific analysis. After exploring issues women face in formal employment, the study delves into business operations of informal, urban-based market participants by analyzing data pertaining to Ghanaian microenterprise. Additionally, the paper details the experiences and views of female entrepreneurs through in-depth interviews and participant observations with thirty …

Brics Built With Stips, Evan Mok-Lamme

Honors Projects

In 2014 Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), ratified the "Cape Town Declaration," which recognized the "paramount importance of science, technology and innovation (STI) for human development." This declaration not only represents the growing importance of STI policy just in the BRICS states, but highlights the emergence of STI as a precondition of modem economic growth. This paper examines the significance of state STI policy as an increasingly important facet of strategic economic and state development in today's globalizing world. Additionally, this paper offers a comparative analysis of STI strategies in three BRICS countries. The research supports two …

Korean-Ness: Creating And Embracing New Identities Through Language And Culture, Damon Dohe, Daniel Shin

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

Technological advances in communications and transportation have unlocked new pathways for mobilizing transnational flows of people, information, and culture. The cyber-networked landscape in which we now live has enabled a pluralistic existence, no longer restricted to singular definitions of citizenship, identity, and cultural membership. In the era of the internet and globalization, the world is often said to be “shrinking.” However, instead of a smaller or simpler world, our project illustrates far more layered and complex relationships and positionalities. This multi-sited research project focuses on the ways in which Korean immigrants and Korean Americans use language to establish cultural networks, …

Editor's Note, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

The editor of the Journal, Dr. Joseph Drew, summarizes the types of research that specialists in comparative civilization emphasize. These are qualitative, quantitative and a mixture of both. These types and their offshoots serve as models for future research. They are particularly recommended for the organization, the International Society for Comparative Civilizations which publishes the Journal.

The European Centre For Higher Education: A Unesco Effort To Reduce Cold War Tensions And To Promote Co-Operation In Higher Education In Europe, Leland Conley Burrows

Comparative Civilizations Review

The article examines the role that the European Centre for Higher Education (CEPES) played in fostering educational cooperation between East and West blocs in education during the Cold War. A unit of UNESCO and located in Romania, it later expanded its mandate to include North America, Turkey, and Israel in addition to its original European base. It existed between 1972 and 2012 and foundered in the latter year due to finances and less than full support.

Leveraging Diasporic Power For Nation Building, Uttam Gaulee

Comparative Civilizations Review

This article examines the issue of brain drain vs brain gain. Specifically, the case of whether the loss of higher education professional departures from a lesser developed country(Nepal in this case) to a higher developed country is balanced by a return of these individuals with skills enhanced by education and training. So far, evidence does not appear to support this hypothesis.

Meaning Of The Twenty-First Century: From Internationalism To Globalism, Ronald Glossop

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Spengler's Worldview: A Retrospective Analysis, Rudolph Zalter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Ian Mcgilchrist, The Master And His Emissary: The Divided Brain And The Making Of The Western World. Yale University Press, 2009., Marek J. Celinski

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.